Strawberry Shortcake

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day and long weekend!

I made poutine in honor of Canada Day (July 1). Do you know what poutine “poo-teen” is? It’s french fries with gravy and squeaky cheese (fresh cheese curds) on top. You don’t need a recipe – that’s all it is. French fries, gravy, cheese. Eat it hot. Yum.

It’s this really traditional dish in Montreal, and we fell in love with it when we were there. Well, I thought I would be inventive and try to make poutine with a twist — make latkes and use those rather than the traditional french fries. Ohmygosh, you know, sometimes things just flop? French fries are so much better in that dish. Never going back!

This is the poutine that we had in Montreal, at the Montreal Pool Hall. I asked around about where the best poutine in all of Montreal was, and that was the answer I got. It wasn’t some grimy, dim pool hall either — we went there early in the evening and it was just fine (as of last year, maybe earlier, it’s closed):Yum.

Well, for Independence Day it was only right to make something quintessentially American, and what’s more American than strawberry shortcake, right?

Real strawberry shortcake — that is, more along this traditional, historic lines — involves a biscuit rather than some kind of sponge (or other) cake. Another lovely thing is that, like poutine, you don’t need a recipe because it’s so easy. Biscuits + sweetened whipped cream + cored & halved strawberries

Make biscuits as you normally would in your cast iron skillet. If you’re one of those biscuit-cutter-then-cookie-sheet bakers, that’s fine too. When they come out, split the biscuits into top layer and bottom layer.

Make your cream — take 1-1/4 cups heavy whipping cream and whip in the Kitchenaid to soft peaks. Add sugar to make it lightly but deliciously sweet and mix again just until entirely incorporated throughout. I use 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar for this. It’s just to your taste.

Take 1/3 of the sweetened whipping cream and put it between the top and bottom layer of the biscuit. Put the biscuit top on and spread the rest of the cream all over the biscuit top, then add halved (and cored) strawberries:Pretty!